Hotel Pricing at Popular US Tourist Destinations

This paper empirically investigates the pricing of hotel rooms in the US market, at popular tourist destinations (PTD) such as Las Vegas, Hawaii, relative to other locations. Regression analysis yields the following insights: (i) The hotel room rent on weekends is higher than the rent on the weekdays. Interestingly, the relative increase in rent on weekends at PTD is greater than that at other locations; (ii) The rent decreases with an increase in the hotel capacity. Interestingly, the decline in rent with increasing capacity at PTD is greater than that at other locations; (iii) The increase in rent because of superior hotel reputation is greater at PTD, compared to other destinations; (iv) The discounts offered at the PTD are deeper than the corresponding discounts offered at other locations.